Peter 'Pan' Panofski, is a friend and pen pal of Mork, who is an inmate in Happy Valley Sanitorium, in Boulder, and who believes himself to be the real Peter Pan. He appears in Season 3's Mork in Never Never Land.
About Peter[]
Peter has been Mork's pen pal for a little while and after some time, has invited Mork to visit him so they can meet face to face. Excited Mork really wants Mindy to go with him but she turns him down feeling she wouldn't be very good company having still not heard about her scholarship, and feeling down about her future.
Peter, unknown to Mindy, is a resident of Happy Valley Sanitorium, and is massively excited about Mork's visit. Peter's upbeat optimism irritates his grumpy friend Sid, who he constantly tries to cheer up. Mork and Peter immediately hit it off, both of them exuberant, optimistic and cheerful, trying to get Sid to play games with them. But when he blows them off, Peter bemoans the fact that people don't want to play anymore. Mork tells him that Mindy is depressed at the moment and doesn't want to play either and Peter tells him its because they've grown up.
He then tells Mork his big secret, he is actually the real Peter Pan, and is delighted when Mork believes him. Mork to prove his belief in him, tells Peter his own secret of being from Ork.
Mork is keen that Peter comes home with him so he can help him cheer up Mindy. A little nervous but buoyed by Mork's enthusiasm Peter agrees only for Sid to remind him that he can't leave the Sanitorium. Peter tells Mork he can't go because it's against the Rules, and as the inmates are taken back from the Rec Room and Nurse Tula explains that they have to be locked up at night for their safety.
When Mork asks Mindy why some people are locked up, even without having done anything wrong, without contextualizing the question for her, she misunderstands and tells them they shouldn't be, Mork resolves to break Peter out and bring him home to meet Mindy. But Peter is reluctant, having put himself into Happy Valley because no one believed him, and he's afraid Mindy won't either. But when Mork tells him that Mindy believes he's from Ork, Peter resolves to go with Mork. Mork uses his finger to remove one of the window grates, and Peter uses his pixie dust to help them fly there...but they both land on the ground with a thud, which Mork explains away as bum dust.
The next morning, Mork calls Peter down from the attic to meet Mindy, who is alarmed when Mork uses his finger in front of Peter, to close the attic stairs. Mork tells her not to worry as Peter 'understands'. He then introduces Peter to her as Peter Pan, and thinking he's joking she plays along with Peter asking him if he lives in Never Neverland. When he tells her he moved to Happy Valley, she realizes he's an inmate from the Asylum and quietly starts to panic.
When she pulls Mork aside, and tells him he misunderstood that Peter Pan isn't real. Peter overhears her, and tells her that problems only seem big if that's all you look at in life. He tells her she should crow like a rooster. That whenever they feel good in Neverland they crow. Both Mork and Peter try and convince her to try it, that'll help her forget her worries, but while she appreciates their motives she can't bring herself to do it. When the phone rings, she answers to find it's the Dean of the Grad School who tells her she's been unsuccessful. While she's on the phone Mork and Peter try to get her to crow down the phone to the Dean, but she chickens out.
Mork tells her that was the moment to let the 'little person' inside of her out, and set aside her adult problems, and he and Peter parade around the apartment crowing loudly, at which point Nurse Tula and an orderly from the Asylum walk into the apartment having heard them. Mork tries to create a diversion for Peter to 'fly' out the window, but Nurse Tula stops him by telling they need him at Happy Valley he cheers people up and Sid misses him. Hearing that Peter decides he has to go back to help them, and apologizes to Mork that he wasn't able to cheer up Mindy.
As Peter starts to go with Nurse Tula and the Orderly, Mork pleads with Mindy to crow, for herself and for Peter. But she resists, reluctant as she'd feel ridiculous. He reminds her she's been miserable all week so has nothing to lose, and Peter looking back tells her she needs to enjoy what she does have, instead of worrying about what she doesn't. Urging her on constantly, she finally lets out a full blooded crow, delighting them all.
Laughing and finding she really does feel better, and goes to Peter to tell him that she believes in him, which makes him incredibly happy.
After they leave, Mindy thanks Mork, telling him she really does feel better, and she's been thinking. She doesn't need to go on to do Post Grad work, she can go out and try for a job without it and that's what she's going to do, even if its a little scary. At that point they hear Peter's voice and turn to see him floating outside the upstairs window, saying goodbye and that he'll see Mork next visiting day. Flabbergasted Mindy charges to the window, watching him fly away. Looking back at Mork she wonders if he helped Peter do that, and he asks her if she really wants to know. Telling him no, he tells her he doesn't either.